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1 - 10 of 14
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(2011)Conference PaperThis paper investigates the engagement towards sustainability of graduating industrial design students in Australia. This was achieved by completing a content analysis of the entries in the Australian Design Award - James Dyson Award, focusing on the claims made in the product descriptions, their rationale for representing design excellence and why they believe their work is award winning. The findings were encouraging, as the overwhelming majority of finalists and winners had incorporated an environmentally responsive strategy or addressed an issue of significance to society. The analysis results provide evidence that sustainability issues are increasingly being tackled in Australian industrial design education. That graduating students choose to do final-year projects which reflect their sensitivity to these global issues suggest concern and readiness on their part in exploring real solutions to these problems, and perhaps a desire and optimism for a more promising world for future generations.
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(2012)Conference PaperThe imperative to teach future generations of industrial designers about the ecological and social sustainability aspects of their practice needs no argument. The profession has generally been blamed for promoting conspicuous consumption and stylistic obsolescence, and designers are considered indirectly responsible for the masses of discarded and short-lived objects in landfill. This paper examines how industrial design education is making up for past errors in design practice. It looks at the undergraduate and postgraduate programs of industrial design universities in various countries around the world, searching for evidences of both ecologically and socially sustainable design in the program descriptions, teaching and learning modules, and galleries of student works appearing on university websites. This research will be useful for industrial design course leaders and academics who are interested in benchmarking the extent to which they cover sustainability in their educational programmes, and help them gauge how they fare in educating their students to become more responsible practitioners in the future.
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(2011)Conference PaperThis paper looks for evidences of socially sustainable product innovations amongst the entries recognized in international industrial design awards. The winning designs for the last four years in three of the most popular mainstream accolades were investigated and profiled. The analysis shows that attention to socially sustainability in design is gradually picking up. Several special awards that pay special attention to social sustainability issues were found, suggesting that support for this type of innovation in the design profession is growing.
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(2011)Conference PaperTechnological and fashion obsolescence continue to be concerns in the design of contemporary products. Research shows that consumers dispose of household items even though those are still fully or partly functional, for various reasons. One cause of premature disposal is the lack of emotional attachment between user and product. Lounge furniture was selected as the product area for this study. The research starts with a literature review on consumer-product attachment, and on design strategies which promote the optimization of product lifetimes, followed by an online survey and in-depth interviews among householders to determine behaviours in furniture usage, maintenance and disposition. The findings of this research add to understanding of product attachment and detachment stages as well as possible factors that would help designers foster long-term product attachment. The study is intended to add support to a new approach to sustainable design that seeks to extend product lifetimes by designing in the potential for continuation of positive experiences that could lead to the consumer’s enduring attachment to particular products.
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(2011)Conference PaperTechnological and fashion obsolescence continue to be concerns in the design of contemporary products. Research shows that consumers dispose of household items even though those are still fully or partly functional, for various reasons including the lack of a stable emotional bond between users and products. This paper aims to explore how industrial designers, as a willing translator and initiator of the relationship between products and users, might facilitate the generation and continuation of positive experiences that could potentially lead to the consumer’s enduring attachment to particular products, thereby optimizing the product’s lifetime and detouring it from becoming landfill too soon.
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(2010)Book ChapterWhat can we learn from product design and consumer behaviour that might enable products to defy obsolescence? This chapter considers a range of product attributes, consumer behaviours and societal factors that feature prolonged product life-spans. Examples are mostly drawn from the consumer electronics sector, which is of particular interest due to rapid obsolescence. The life-spans of many such products (notably personal computers and mobile phones) are getting shorter and a significant proportion of these products are still in functional order when discarded Many of the examples presented are informal responses to impending obsolescence. They are often not planned or anticipated by the designer or manufacturer. The chapter concludes by considering new and collaborative approaches, between designers and users, in meeting the challenge of effectively engaging with obsolescence in fast-moving technological sectors such as consumer electronics.
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(2014)Journal ArticlePurpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of socially inclusive Building Information Model (BIM) library components. A BIM requires and integrates many sets of predefined blocks or collection of attributes. Any one of the individual blocks can be replicated and/or stored in a block library for later reuse. However, few if any current block libraries contain or have access to the blocks that enable social inclusion. Methodology: An action-based research methodology was used to design, develop and deploy three enabling blocks as part of a plan to develop a larger library of tools for BIM practitioners. The Enabling Block Library is an open access library of Australian code compliant mobility elements published online. This paper discusses the design and development of the library components in detail, explaining how each of the three blocks selected in our pilot evaluation how was: (1) identified; (2) fact checked; (3) planned (designed); (4) deployed (action); and then (5) evaluated. Findings: The process and evaluation highlights that appropriate code-compliant design tools can support greater social inclusion aspects of a built environment project. These are tools that are relevant to the full spectrum of industry users of BIM, including designers, engineers and certifiers. Originality and value: The paper applied action-based research methodology in the development, deployment and evaluation of exploratory BIM use to create more socially inclusive environments. It is of value because it facilitates designers creating the optimum of performance based accessible environments, rather than the minimum ‘deemed to satisfy’ building codes. Keywords: Building Information Modelling, block element library, social inclusion, accessible environments Article Classification: Research Paper
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(2010)Journal ArticleHealthcare Design in Australasia, interviewed by Kathleen Armstrong for World Health Design Journal, April edition.
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(2011)Journal ArticleAge-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major cause of visual impairment and blindness among people aged over 60 years in developed countries. Functional vision may be assessed using ‘activity of daily living (ADL) instruments, which assess independent living skills. AMD also affects the quality of life and impedes healthy independent ageing. This case study highlights strategies that may assist with improving functional outcomes in practical activities in individuals with similar patterns of visual loss. Some instruments of visual function may not take into account the effects of non-visual coping strategies on the ability to function, resulting in underestimates of functionality. Therefore, information from self-reported visual impairment and individual coping strategies is essential to assess functionality in performing daily living activities.